What do you guys think about Spidey’s supporting cast these days? For all the issues Brand New Day had, I thought the supporting cast was one of the better parts. But most of those characters have been completely irrelevant for years now. Kinda feels like he doesn’t even have a real supporting cast anymore. Is the only way to fix it by going back to the way it was before OMD, or is it salvageable in it's current state?
Spider-Man's supporting cast
most of those characters have been completely irrelevant for years now
Remember when Carlie Cooper was introduced and every character was saying how perfect she was for Peter?She's just about as popular as the other love interests from that era nowadays, I don't think she's had a talking role in years.
Dan Slott was a blight that the Spider-Man comics have never healed from.
The real storyline stopped with the Gathering of Five and Ben Reilly riding off on that motorcycle
I think this is the last time she's appeared in the main book, and yeah no speaking role. Hilarious that Vin Gonzales gets one, though.
The biggest issue is that Peter just doesn't have a civilian life anymore. He doesn't have a steady job, nor does he go to the Bugle anymore, and all of his friends have either died or turned into heroes/villains. Randy keeps getting pushed because he's quite literally the only friend Peter has anymore.
And I'll be honest, I blame Spencer almost as much as I blame Slott and Wells
Spectacular Spider-Men brought back and introduced a bunch of civilian supporting cast, but that is over now
That book was 90% OCs and they all sucked. I also couldn't give less of a fuck about Sha Shan
ironically she had more casual and romantic chemistry with Overdrive when Spencer used Carlie lmao
How's it Spencer's fault when he's the last guy to actually try to meaningfully use Peter's civilian supporting cast in any way?
I feel like Spencer tried more than most, even if it amounted to nothing significant in the end.
Removed Peter from the Bugle for no other reason than to "fix things"
Killed off Harry again for no other reason than to "fix things"
Started the fucking retarded Ned Leeds is alive and Betty is pregnant plotline that no one knows what to do with so they just ignore her
Made Norah dubiously evil or at least immoral with nothing ever going to follow up on it
Dumped Peter right back into college but never bothered to build a cast there
The Bugle thing is what annoys me the most. For all his faults, Slott found a way to have Peter at the Bugle while respecting his scientific career and not regressing him back to being a freelance photographer. Then Spencer undid that all in one issue and we've had zero Bugle content since, meaning a huge chunk of Peter's supporting cast just isn't used anymore
I haven't caught up with the Wells run yet, was Betty being pregnant completely ignored or did she give birth and then get ignored?
The latter. There was one story that tied into a larger Hobgoblin one and then that was it, haven't seen either of them since. They were alluded to in another story which very quickly became about Chasm and then later Green Goblin, and since that Peter hasn't even thought about Betty or Ned
I bet the main reason is that it perpetuates the thing with everyone but Peter growing up around him. Randy is the only one of his friends who never really got much development so he gets to stick around
Speaking of Vin, what happened the Goblin Cult he joined? I vaguely remember him threatening Harry but don't remember anything past that.
blaming Spencer is a litmus test for stupidity
Blindly defending Spencer's entire run because it did a few things wrong is retarded
Felicia is the sole highlight in Pete's life since a very long time ago.
May is still good.
I didn't defend his entire run blindly, but you definitely criticized something he didn't do, which was actually use his supporting cast. Betty's pregnancy being ignored is Wells' fault and Harry was always going to die sometime anyway
Really? I felt like she was basically non-existent for chunks of time, the last big thing I remember her doing was marrying JJJ's dad. At least the current run is doing something with her, even if it is through flashbacks,
Betty's pregnancy being ignored is Wells' fault
And Spencer's, since he also did fuck all with it after introducing it. It was a half baked idea
and Harry was always going to die sometime anyway
Total cope. There was nothing to suggest Harry would be killed off before Spencer decided to do it just so he could "fix" Spec 200 (he actually made it much worse)
And that still leaves us without any of the Bugle cast.
Much like the book itself they have been a bunch of hollow, vacuous nobodies who contribute nothing to the book and world. The whole thing just feels so fake in ways that I can't describe.
So Randy needs to get superpowers. Betty is already a badass so she doesn't need to bother.
How?
See that's the problem, the most emotional moment she's had in some time is a flashback
OMD kneecapped what they could do with May because the moment you put her in peril you remind the readers of OMD
How you worded it sounds like other writers wasted stuff he set up that they easily could've utilised. Also Norah was always a nasty and borderline awful person, also as mentioned I think Spencer was the first person who actually tried using Carlie in some form that wasn't as a love interest no one cared for. Plus him actually following up and developing the Connors family was nice while still keeping them as Lizard people.
I bet the main reason is that it perpetuates the thing with everyone but Peter growing up around him.
It wouldn't surprise me. Especially since there was that long-ass post by someone insisting they weren't a Marvel employee but writes like one, trying in vain to defend how everyone around Peter is getting a kid while Peter remains the same
>Made Norah dubiously evil or at least immoral with nothing ever going to follow up on it
The only thing wrong there is not following up on it, but that's also on Wells and Lowe
It's funny how they went out of their way to make OMD, their big character resetting event, center around Peter refusing to let May die, and followed it up by doing basically nothing of significance with her since.
Fixed.
There's so many ways they keep constantly kneecapping themselves since OMD
Not much they can really do with Aunt May
the insistence that youth is the core of Spider-Man but then have characters around Peter have kids (Harry, Betty, Venom; MJ briefly because of Wells' stupid idea before they did a quick fix) and Miles being around as Spider-Man, and now keeping Spider-Gwen in 616 for the time being
attempts to give Peter a new love interest come off insincere because they think of the love interests as drama/humor props
the dumb story where Peter had to fake a photo to save Jonah's job which kneecaps him working for photography stuff for a while
the whole Parker Industries thing which was contrived setup (Ock in Peter's body let that happen), contrived resolution to get Peter back to square one
I know there's other stuff i missed.
It's funny to me how Spidey's villains have had more character development and growth over the years arguably then Peter has.
They exist as caricatures of humanity, so they can explore different ideas.
And kill yourself
No.
attempts to give Peter a new love interest come off insincere because they think of the love interests as drama/humor props
When's the last time they even put any effort into one? The love interests from BND weren't perfect by any means, but it feels like the only time they put any semblance of effort into them. Shay's been around for a year all they've done with her is have her get angry because Peter's late to their dates.
The love interests from BND weren't perfect by any means, but it feels like the only time they put any semblance of effort into them.
They really didn't. Michelle was such a disaster of controversy they just eventually used her less other than contrived drama that made her look like an asshole, and Slott had her gone
Carlie just felt like they were desperately trying to make her a character and wanting everyone to prefer her instead of Mary Jane, but it came off extremely forced as hell.
Norah was straight up terrible
Flash -> Turned into Venom, then Anti-Venom
MJ -> Turned into Jackpot, then Venom
Kafka -> Killed, cloned then turned into Goblin Queen
Ned Leeds -> Cloned, last time I saw him he was Hobgoblin again
Harry -> Dead, but not before his soul got fucked
Norman -> Ungoblined
The real improvement was JJJ evolving by knowing about Peter being Spider-man and Black Cat getting the Queenpin washed away.
Honestly, it all started with Flash becoming Venom. It was actually pretty good, but it sent the wrong signals to Marvel...
I forgot about Michelle, gonna have to reread some of the stuff she was in. But apart from that it still feels like the last time they tried (particularly with Carlie, even if she ended up about as relevant as Michelle despite their efforts). Nowadays girls just show up, date him for an issue or two, then leave.
But yeah, Michelle, Carlie, and Norah being the peak of their efforts just shows how bad things have been for the past 15 years.
The current Ned isn't a clone, he's the original that survived because goblin serum. The clone Ned died
Norah was great as that "annoying person that I work with" role. She She would hav been better if she was trying to be the female J Jonah Jamerson with Peter as her photographer
I just want 616 main universe supporting characters, stop with spider-personas and multiversal refugees, I hate them, all of them.
Stop with the spider-verse shit, period